Thursday, July 12, 2012

World's Coolest Design Destinations

1. Herzog & de Meuron’s showroom at VitraHaus, in Weil am Rhein, Germany
Furniture manufacturer Vitra’s grassy headquarters at the meeting point
of France, Germany, and Switzerland (just outside Basel) has been an
architecture destination since its Frank Gehry–designed museum opened in
1989. There are also buildings by Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando, but the
most remarkable sight may be the new showroom
and store designed by the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron. The
architects have taken the archetypal pitched-roof house, elongated it,
and stacked 12 of them up like fireplace logs. Inside, you can follow
winding staircases through the dreamlike space and look for home furnishings.

2. Andels Hotel, in Lodz, Poland
A sister property of the ultramodern Andels Hotel in Prague, the Polish
version is notable for its setting, an immense red-brick mill built by
the 19th-century Jewish entrepreneur Izrael Poznanski. The hotel is just
one component of a fantastic cultural and shopping district that somehow escaped destruction during World War II.
An electrical plant from 1912 is now a disco. An ornate 1877 weaving
mill houses restaurants and shops. And, in a former finishing mill,
you’ll now find the Museum of the Factory.

3. Shweeb, in Rotorua, New Zealand
Australian inventor Geoffrey Barnett dreamed up his human-powered
monorail while living in Tokyo, when he wished he could pedal above that
city’s endless traffic jams. Since 2007, it’s been possible to
test-drive Barnett’s fantasy on the world’s first Shweeb, at the
Agroventures adventure theme park in Rotorua, New Zealand. Last year,
his company, Shweeb Holdings Limited, received $1 million from Google to
invest in research on a commuter-powered transit system in a city still
to be determined.

4. Vanke Center, in Shenzhen, China
Steven Holl, of Steven Holl Architects, refers to this building as “the horizontal skyscraper.” Situated in Shenzhen, the building is about as long as the Empire State Building is tall (1,250 feet)
and is mounted on massive, illuminated stilts, called “cores,” above a
network of tropical gardens. Much of the Vanke Center will be used for
offices, but a 200-plus-room hotel will open in fall 2011, offering an
unusually tranquil retreat in this bustling city.

5. Souk Waqif, in Doha, Qatar
Souk Waqif is the one great public space that remains
in Doha, Qatar, a city that is reinventing itself at lightning speed.
In the souk, locals congregate to dine, smoke shishas, meander through a
maze of alleys, and shop. The 2008 restoration by designer Mohamed Al
Abdullah replaced all structures that seemed at odds with tradition,
revitalizing the historic spot.